The English are a mix of many different groups: Anglo-Saxons, Normans, Vikings, Celtic, blah blah... I'm an American of half English decent, so I've been interested lately to learn about the history of that country (specifically the Middle Ages). I had always thought the kings of England were English. After reading into it... I was surprised to find out that the kings of England seem to have been everything but English. They were French for most of history. I knew about the Normans (who I guess were more Viking than French), but the Plantagenet family really surprised me. They were just so blatantly and unabashedly French and ruled England for so long. I know that obviously those English didn't go anywhere just because a French family was in charge. England and France were constantly at war, but that seems funny to me now because both sides were being run by French kings. So my question is about the English army... was it still made up of English (Anglo-Saxons/Normans/Vikings/Celts) or was the army purely French at that point as well?
The clue is in words we still use today for food. The people farming animals used English words to describe the animal, where the ruling class used French words for the meat - cow/beef, deer/venison etc.
What does food have to do with armies? Well, the majority of armies were levies, meaning they had everyday occupations such as farmhands, bakers, butchers etc. These levies would certainly have been 'English'
There were some 'standing armies' (professional soldiers) and I'm not sure about those men. Cavalry were often made up of members of the ruling class and I guess would have been French speaking. Mercenaries were not uncommon and could have come from even further afield like Switzerland.